Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/108

All these were put into an earthenware pot and boiled for two hours and a quarter; then divided into twelve portions of 267/12 loths each, costing 13/4 kreutzer.

Second, for the bread dumpling

lbs.

loths.

Kreutzers.

1

13 of fine Semel bread

10

1

0 of fine flour

41/2

0

6 salt

01/2

3

0 water

0

Total.

5 19

Cost

15

This mass was made into dumplings, which were boiled half an hour in clear water. Upon taking them out of the water they were found to weigh 5 pounds 24 loths, giving 151/3 loths to each portion, costing 11/4 kreutzer.

The meat, soup, and dumplings were served all at once in the same dish, and were all eaten together at dinner. Each member of the mess was also supplied with 10 loths of rye-bread, which cost five sixteenths of a kreutzer. Also with 10 loths of the same for breakfast, another piece of the same weight in the afternoon, and another for his supper.

A detailed analysis of this is given, the sum total of which shows that each man received in avoirdupois weight daily:

lbs.

ozs.

2

211/100

of solids,

1

284/100

of "prepared water,"

3

518/100

total solids and fluids,

which cost 517/48 kreutzers, or twopence sterling, very nearly. Other bills of fares of other messes, officially reported, give about the same. This is exclusive of the cost of fuel, etc., for cooking.

All who are concerned in soup-kitchens or other economic dietaries should carefully study the details supplied in these essays of Count Rumford; they are thoroughly practical, and, although nearly a century old, are highly instructive at the present day. With their aid large basins of good, nutritious soup might be supplied at one penny per basin, leaving a profit for establishment expenses; and, if such were obtainable at Billingsgate, Smithfield, Leadenhall, Covent-Garden, and other markets in London and the provinces, where poor men are working at early hours and cold mornings, the dram-drinking which prevails so fatally in such places would be more effectually superseded than by any temperance missions which are limited to mere talking. Such soup is incomparably better than tea or coffee. It should be included in the bill of fare of all the coffee-palaces and such-like establishments. — Knowledge.